Asymmetric Design and Simulation of Ring-Defect Photonic Crystal Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

In this letter, the optical modes of a ring-defect photonic crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser are calculated by the fully numerical solution of the scalar Helmholtz equation. We explain the experimentally observed higher order mode emission on the basis of optical loss discrimination. Special photonic crystal patterns that favor even higher order optical modes are designed and simulated. These modes are beyond the scope of previous simplified analysis.